In a recent case concerning employers’ responsibilities in terms of shared parental pay, an Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has ruled that a company’s decision to refuse a new father enhanced pay while on shared parental leave did not constitute discrimination.
In the case of Ali v Capita Customer Management Ltd, employee Mr Ali wished to take shared parental leave so that his wife, who had been on maternity leave, could return to work.
However, when Mr Ali put in his request, bosses at Capita told him that he was only entitled to pay for shared parental leave and was not entitled to enhanced pay.
This is contrary to the fact that a comparable female employee caught in his position would be entitled to receive enhanced maternity pay for the 2-14 week post-birth period.
Taking his case to an Employment Tribunal late last year, Mr Ali argued that he had been subjected to direct sex discrimination.
Examining the case, the Tribunal compared the likes of maternity leave and shared parental leave and found that Mr Ali was indeed directly discriminated against as a result of Capita’s decision to deny him the higher rate of pay.
However, in a surprise move on 11 April 2018, the EAT overturned this finding in favour of Capita, subsequently ruling that Mr Ali had not been discriminated against.
The EAT found that the previous Employment Tribunal had failed to properly consider the ‘purpose’ of paid maternity leave in its decision.
It added that the Tribunal had wrongly interpreted that Mr Ali’s circumstances were comparable to those of a woman who had recently given birth to a child, adding that the purpose of maternity pay was solely to recognise the “health and wellbeing of a woman in pregnancy, confinement and after recent childbirth.”
Commenting on the case, Sarah Jackson, of charity Working Families, said that pregnant women and new mothers required “important safeguards” and “special employment protection” in comparison with men.
She said: “Only women can experience childbirth, and maternity leave is to protect women’s health and wellbeing – it cannot simply be equated with ‘childcare’.
“We have long called for greater rights and pay for working fathers, including properly paid, stand-alone period of extended paternity leave for fathers; but these should complement, not undermine, the rights of working mothers.”